1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic terminal crimping apparatus which is particularly suitable for crimping a bent terminal provided with a cable connection part and a terminal connection part which are integral with each other to form a bend, to connect the bent terminal to a cable.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional automatic terminal crimping apparatus comprises a cable cutting station for cutting a serially supplied cable to a predetermined length, a stripping station for stripping a sheath from the cut cable at an end, and a terminal crimping station for connecting a terminal to the stripped cable end by crimping, these stations being provided along the transport path of the cable. At the terminal crimping station, the connection by crimping is performed on a straight terminal and a bent terminal. The straight terminal includes a cable connection part to be connected to the cable and a terminal connection part to be connected to an electrical equipment which are integrally formed in a straight line, and the bent terminal includes a cable connection part and a terminal connection part which are integral with each other to form a bend.
Some recent wound high-voltage resistant cables for use as ignition cables in an ignition circuit for an automotive engine have a discrimination mark such as a cylinder number printed longitudinally on its outer peripheral surface. On the other hand, because of relation between the arrangement of high-voltage resistant cables and connecting position thereof to electrical equipments, various types of bent terminals are used each having a cable connection part to be connected to a high-voltage resistant cable and a terminal connection part to be connected to an electrical equipment which are integral with each other to form a bend.
The bent terminal has been connected to the high-voltage resistant cable such that the discrimination mark of the high-voltage resistant cable is oriented toward a predetermined direction with respect to the bent terminal for purposes of improvements in assembling and commercial quality of the ignition cable in an automotive assembly line.
In the conventional automatic terminal crimping apparatus as above mentioned, it has been impossible in terminal connection to vary the predetermined direction of the discrimination mark of the high-voltage resistant cable in accordance with the type of the bent terminals. Hence, in the conventional connection, the high-voltage resistant cable has been cut to length and the cut cables have been stripped of a sheath at an end by machine, and then the cables have been aligned to a predetermined position of a terminal crimping apparatus while an operator visually confirming the high-voltage resistant cables one by one so that the discrimination mark of each cable is oriented toward the predetermined direction with respect to the bent terminal.
According to the conventional method, an operator has manually oriented the discrimination marks toward the predetermined direction with respect to the bent terminals, which is labor- and time-consuming and degrades the production efficiency.